President Obama and the Department of Homeland Security, according to press reports, are undergoing a review of hundreds of thousands of pending removal cases, people in immigration court facing possible deportation from the United States, to determine cases that are not worth pursuing. I have commented about this in a movie, here. One concern I express in the movie is that the heightened focus on removing aliens with criminal convictions in their past, particularly long-term permanent residents with decade-old convictions,…

Donald Trump, among others, is raising the issue again. President Obama is not entitled to be President because he was not born in the United States. Not because Hawaii was not a state yet, as Hawaii was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959, and Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961, but because President Obama was actually born abroad. Not that there is any proof he was born abroad, but because of some concerns about the availability…

In this blog I have posted many articles about the horrid policy where arriving alien asylum seekers are not released from detention until they are granted asylum or related relief. I pointed out that Australia had such a system and abandoned it just as the United States implemented a “no release” policy. I compared this policy to the Sound of Music where if this policy were in effect in Switzerland, Maria Von Trapp would have been detained upon arrival in…

It may seem like I have been concentrating a lot on USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) these days. With all the bad things that happen to people – like prolonged detentions, abuse at the border, laws that separate families forever – the problems with USCIS may pale in comparison. However, immigration customers most often deal with USCIS which is probably the largest component of the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) immigration triumvirate (C.P., ICE, USCIS) which grants all immigration…